We’ve never understood how hunger works. That might be about to change.
“Sure, we managed to have the brain say ‘Go eat,’” he says. “But that’s not really an explanation. How does...
World
How machine learning might unlock earthquake prediction
Instances of regular intervals between earthquakes of similar magnitudes have been noted in other places, including Hawaii, but these are...
We need a moonshot for computing
None of these potential technologies are new: researchers have been working on them for many years, and quantum computing is...
Six takeaways from a climate-tech boom
But the optimism comes with a warning. As a journalist who wrote extensively about cleantech 1.0, which began around 2006...
A high-tech mouthguard that might help prevent concussions
Appreciation of the real risks of head injuries has been a long time coming. “Even 10 years ago, if someone...
Meet the economist who wants the field to account for nature
In a recent project undertaken for the Colombian government, for instance, the Natural Capital Project assisted in establishing a conservation...
This vibrating weight-loss pill seems to work—in pigs
So far this “electroceutical” has only been tested in a handful of young Yorkshire pigs, but with promising results. According...
The Download: 2023’s worst tech failures, and the end of online anonymity in China
2 What we learn about wars on TikTokThe videos that do well tend to be apocalyptic, alarmist, and full of...
Gene editing had a banner year in 2023
It really shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Perhaps no technology has more power to transform medicine, and its vast...
How 2023 marked the death of anonymity online in China
In reality, it’s already impossible to be fully anonymous online in China. Over the years, to implement a stricter regime...
Is this the most energy-efficient way to build homes?
Passive houses now account for less than 1% of multifamily construction. It’s a marriage of efficiency and rigorously applied physics,...
The Download: recreating the early internet, and 2023 in climate data
This story is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday....
2023 is breaking all sorts of climate records
It’s a lot to make sense of, so for this last newsletter of 2023, let’s take a look back at...
Recapturing early-internet whimsy with HTML
The HTML Energy community advocates understanding HTML for what it quite literally is: a language. And it celebrates the way...
The Download: good climate news, and promising pixels
Scientists are loudly warning that the world is running out of time to avoid dangerous warming levels. The picture is...
China’s judicial system is becoming even more secretive
Human rights advocates hoped to show this was not just a one-off incident, but a systemic issue ignored by the...
There was some good climate news in 2023. Really.
As federal regulations go, preventing emissions of a combustible, planet-warming superpolllutant that isn’t even producing anything of economic value is...
These minuscule pixels are poised to take augmented reality by storm
The HMZ-T1 headset performed best with 3D films, which proved to be a fad. But Sony didn’t give up on...
Two-way reflections on MIT Technology Review’s 125th
I composed the following palindromes in honor of the 125th anniversary of MIT Technology Review. They include what I call...
The Download: the AI Edition
The internet changed everything—how we work and play, how we spend time with friends and family, how we learn, how...
